Books for TV Addicts: 3 books to read while Suits takes a vacation

For years, I’d been hearing buzz about the highly-rated USA show Suits. Since I’ve never been a big fan of lawyer procedurals, I mostly ignored the hype. But then a friend informed me that Harvey Spector is one of the hottest characters on television. So, naturally, I decided to give it a shot.

She was not wrong. Gabriel Macht’s Harvey is one of those rare characters who manages to be both powerful and sexy while still likeable and sensitive. Think Don Draper on Mad Men, but with more sports cars and less cigarette smoke. And he’s not the only good part of the show. Suits follows one of New York City’s top law firms as the partners battle for power and control while also winning seemingly impossible cases.

Harvey is known as the city’s best closer and he rarely loses. But things get complicated when he decides to hire Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) as his new associate. Not only did Mike not go to Harvard—a requirement at their firm—but he never even went to law school. He’s just a genius, someone who can memorize anything he’s ever seen or heard. He quickly learns that from managing partner Jessica (Gina Torres) to lovely paralegal Rachel (Meghan Markle), the firm is a hotbed of trust issues and power struggles. Mike has to hide his identity from everyone while working to build and maintain a friendship with mentor Harvey.

The show finished its fourth season on March 4, leaving things pretty up in the air at Pearson Specter Litt. Donna (Sarah Rafferty) just left longtime boss Harvey after they finally, finally, confessed their love. Louis Litt (the delightful Rick Hoffman) is threatening to expose Mike, who just got engaged to Rachel.

Seriously guys, this show is SO good. I finished all four seasons in an embarrassingly short amount of time. I might have stopped hanging out with my friends. And, um, bathing for a little while. Luckily I don’t have too long to wait for new episodes—Season 5 premieres on June 25. But in the meantime, here are three books I’ll be devouring until my favorite lawyers come back from hiatus:

There’s a reason this classic Grisham novel ended up on every bestseller list and was turned into a popular film. Suspenseful and complicated, it tells the story of Mitch McDeere, who joins the Memphis law firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke. They ply him with all the perks we’ve come to expect from the lawyers on Suits: fancy dinners, fancier cars, even a personal decorator.
But when the FBI contact Mitch about his firm, he finds himself having to make a decision that could cost him his life. The lawyers on Suits might not be quite as diabolical as the ones on The Firm—or maybe they just haven’t been caught yet.

The best part about Suits is the chemistry-packed relationship between Harvey and Donna—it’s not surprising that they slept together the ONE night in 10 years they weren’t coworkers. But it’s not just about the sexual chemistry—these two need each other on a level that transcends a superficial relationship.

Similarly, Nevada and Tucker in Susan Mallery’s popular Fool’s Gold series were once romantically entangled, but now he’s her boss. Like Donna, Nevada is determined to keep romance and business separate. But also like Donna, she fails miserably.

The lawyers on Suits are always flirting with breaking the law in order to win cases. Some do, most don’t, but the pressure and temptation are always there. No one knows this better than Ridha, who writes about falling in love with one of her clients and ultimately committing a crime for him.

When she’s caught, she faces her own criminal charges and her life changes forever. Ridha represents the reality of what can happen when a lawyer skirts the law, recounting her ordeal with honesty and humor.

Rachel Carter grew up surrounded by trees and snow and mountains. She graduated from the University of Vermont and Columbia University, where she received her MFA in nonfiction writing. She is the author of the So Close to You series with Harperteen. These days you can find her working on her next novel in the woods of Vermont.